Some Friendly Cooperation
by Lags
Summary: In his teen years, Carrot Cake is forced to work with the two ponies he has recently become enemies with. NOTHING can go wrong, right? This is just a little thing I thought of writing cause I got bored. This is just something to see if it takes off.
1. The Project

Carrot Cake stared at his locker. He knew the combination like he knew his name, but something felt strange. It was twelve o'clock on a Friday and he had just gotten done with lunch. Everypony was heading straight to their lockers to get their books for their next class. Opening his locker he grabbed his language arts textbook and closed the locker. As he started trotting towards his classroom he was pushed by a unicorn and he tumbled to the ground.

"Hey, what was that for?" he asked as he got back on his hooves.

He looked at the unicorn in anger and then immediately recognized him. The unicorn that stood before him had a white coat and a blue mane. He was a student in Carrot's homeroom. His name was Fancy Pants.

"I'm terribly sorry I bumped into you, it's just that this MORON of a Pegasus shoved me to the ground!" Fancy Pants exclaimed whilst pointing at the Pegasus that had pushed him.

"Oh so I'm a 'moron' now? Now you're just asking for it!" the Pegasus said as he walked threateningly closer to the unicorn.

"Oh if you want a fight, I'll give you a fight! Let's settle this!" Fancy Pants said as he puts his hooves up in a fighting stance.

Carrot Cake didn't even hesitate when he jumped in front of the two ponies, trying to stop the fighting. When he did he got a better look at the Pegasus. He had a blue mane and a light blue coat. He was shorter than Fancy Pants but was still stronger by the looks of his body. After looking at him for a couple seconds, Carrot knew who he was. He was in Carrot's homeroom as well.

"Soarin, Fancy Pants, what in pony hell are you two fighting about!?" Shouted Carrot Cake.

"This pampered brat bumped into me and then had the nerve to say 'watch where you're going'!" Soarin shouted.

Fancy Pants gasped in shock then retorted.

"Nonsense! If you had been looking where you were going none of this would've happened!"

"Oh so you're calling me a liar now!" Soarin shouted back as he tried to hit Fancy Pants.

Soarin missed and hit Carrot in the jaw with a hoof. The Pegasus didn't even have enough time to apologize before Carrot retaliated with his own punch. As soon as Soarin recovered, the three of them got into all out brawl which was only encouraged by their fellow classmates. Eventually teachers and school staff ran in to suppress the fighting and restore order in the halls. Because of the three of them never being in trouble in the past they were let off with a warning and returned to their classes.

After all of his classes, Carrot Cake then went to his homeroom. He stopped at the door to sigh in anger and annoyance. In the room was Fancy Pants; along with a couple other ponies were always the first to get to their class. Shrugging off what was left of his anger he then took his seat and placed his saddlebag next to him. When he looked to the door he saw the Pegasus who had started everything. Fancy Pants, Soarin, and Carrot Cake all stared at each other, their blood boiling with anger.

"Why must I be in the same class with these two buffoons!?" thought Fancy Pants

"Oh Celestia, why is HE here!?" Soarin muttered under his breath.

"Damn it, why am I stuck with these two guys!?" Carrot Cake shook his head.

Their teacher, Mr. Quill, walked into the room and stood in front of the class.

"Good afternoon students. I have a new assignment for you." Mr. Quill announced as he picked up a piece of chalk and started writing the assignment on the blackboard.

The students got out their notebooks. Usually most students would groan at the prospect of more work, but Mr. Quill's class had been accustomed to the weekly Friday project.

"Okay class, because of Memorial Day coming up today's little project will be about the royal guards who protect our very city. I want all of you to at least come up with something that has to do with the guards and honoring them. Also, this will be a group project."

The class cheered, they haven't received a group project in weeks. Soarin was already nodding heads with a couple other classmates who he hung out with.

"But…" Quill continued. "Because of what happened three weeks ago, I will choose who you are going to work with."

The class groaned in anger and disappointment and then turned their anger towards the students who had caused the disturbance of the last group project. While that was happening, Quill picked up a clipboard with all the students names written onto it. He started calling out names to be in randomly assigned groups. Carrot Cake sat in his chair hoping to at least be paired with somepony he knew. When he finally heard his name, he was surprised as well as upset to hear the names of his partners.

"Carrot Cake, Fancy Pants, and Soarin. You three will be group five." Mr. Quill announced as he went on with the list.

Carrot Cake, Fancy Pants, and Soarin all looked at each other with equally surprised faces. Soarin banged his head against his desk, Fancy Pants proceeded to whine and complain about how that was unfair, and Carrot Cake just shook his head in disbelief. For the rest of the day the three of them were silent, even after school.

Even with the fact that he was going to be working with the two ponies he suddenly hates, Carrot Cake still thought about what their project should be about. As he walked he took notice of an old cemetery. He then noticed a couple of colts entering the cemetery. Curious as to what they were doing, he ran up to them.

"Hey, why are ya going?" Carrot asked.

"Oh we're just going ghost hunting." One of the colts said.

"Ghost Hunting?"

"It's when you go into an area that is supposedly haunted and investigate. It's really fun!" the colt's buddy answered.

"That sounds awesome. Thanks for telling me." Carrot thanked as he walked away.

Carrot Cake walked off in search of Soarin and Fancy Pants. He had found what they were going to do for their project.


	2. Getting To Work

As Carrot walked along the stone sidewalk, he played the situations in his head repeatedly.

"If I go get Soarin first and bring him to Fancy Pants then Soarin will get beat to hell by Fancy Pants' group. And If I bring Fancy Pants to Soarin, same situation except the jocks beat down Fancy Pants." Carrot thought. "Wait, if I go to each of them separately and tell them to meet somewhere at the same time then maybe this can work!"

Carrot Cake ran off back to the school. Soarin worked with the school's varsity football team as a trotting back. As he walked onto the football field he saw Soarin and a bunch of other football jocks talking and laughing. The thought of deciding not to talk to him crossed his mind for half a second, for fear of being rejected.

"Hey, Soarin! Hey, Soarin, I need to talk to you!" Carrot spoke up over the jocks who were conversing about helmets.

Soarin exited the group and walked up to Carrot Cake with an angry demeanor.

"What do you want, Carrot?" he asked, annoyed.

"Listen, I need you to meet me at the park at six o'clock tonight." Carrot Cake quickly ordered.

"What, why?" the athlete asked.

Carrot stopped and looked at the time. It was nearing 5:00 PM and by the pace he was currently going, he was running out of time.

"Just meet me at a table at the Canterlot Park. I'll explain later." Carrot said as he took off trotting.

Soarin just shrugged and returned to his teammates to continue another pointless conversation that would lead to an argument then to a brawl, and finally they would be rolling around in the grass laughing. Yes, totally nothing gay going around here.

Carrot Cake now had to look for Fancy Pants. This was one of those times where he was thankful to be an outcast. Because of this, he knows certain things ponies in cliques don't. Such as where other groups hang out and knew a little bit about each group and also what they do.

"So if memory serves me, he SHOULD be somewhere near the city LIBRARY!" Carrot Cake thought to himself as he darted off in search of the building.

As he was running through the middle class section of Canterlot he was nearly run over by a taxi carriage while crossing the street. The carriage swerved one way and he jumped the other. Looking around he then realized his mistake and facehoofed when he noticed it. He forgot to look both ways. As Carrot Cake stood up and dusted himself off he saw Fancy Pants IN the middle class section, buying something from a flea market vendor! He stood there shocked but Fancy Pants hadn't seemed to notice him yet. He seemed oblivious to what had just happened seconds earlier. Slowly, he walked over to the unicorn unsure of whether or not to bother him at a place like this.

"Uhhh, Fancy Pants?" Carrot Cake nervously asked as he poked him at his side.

"Ugh, what is it that yo-"he turned around to see his classmate and his eyes went wide. "Uhh Carrot Cake! H-how did you find me here? Were you following me!?"

"No, I wasn't following you!" Carrot retorted. "I was looking for you and thought you would be at the library, but no…. I find you here…"

"Well, you found me. Now what exactly do you want?" He asked, his usual snotty attitude returning.

"I wanted to tell you that I want you to meet me at the park at six o'clock-" He took a second to look at a nearby clock. "-which SHOULD be about an hour from now, see you later."

"What is this for? What are you having me do?" The unicorn asked.

"It's for that project we're assigned to. I don't have time to explain, just meet me there in an hour."

And with that, the Earth Pony trotted off home to drop off his things and to keep his overprotective mother from worrying and calling the guards to report a missing foal. As he reached the porch to his house he remembered he had to check the mail. After trotting to the mailbox and grabbing a few parcels, he walked back to the door to his house only to stop after hearing his name being called. He looked left and right but didn't see anypony. He turned around to see his neighbor, Cupcake, a few steps behind him.

"Oh, h-hey Cupcake!" The colt stopped to clear his throat. "Watcha doin' here?"

"Oh I was just returning this book you left in class earlier today." The filly said as she handed him the textbook. It was his math book.

"Oh uh, thank you Cupcake. I'm gonna need this textbook for class tomorrow, hehe." Carrot nervously chuckled.

The two stood in awkward silence for a couple minutes.

"Well I've got to get going now." Cupcake said, breaking the silence. "See you tomorrow Carrot Cake, it was nice talking with you!"

"It was nice talking to you too!" Carrot Cake said very timidly, even though she had trotted out of earshot of what he just said.

Remembering why he came to his house, he ran in and dropped off his saddlebag. As he dropped his bag onto a seat on the dining table he took a glimpse at the time and realized he had less than 20 minutes to get to the park. There wasn't enough time to tell his mother so he quickly wrote a note about what he was going to be doing and stuck it onto the fridge Carrot Cake ran for another five or six minutes before finally getting to the park. As expected, Fancy Pants was early and sitting at the table anxious to start the project.

"Ahh, Carrot Cake. I've been waiting for you; shall we get started with the project?" Fancy Pants asked as he raised a pencil with his magic.

"You're gonna have to wait a bit longer, I'm still waiting for one more pony."

"One more? Who could we possibly be waiting fo- Oh dear Celestia no, not him. "Fancy Pants facehoofed.

Just then, the light blue Pegasus trotted into the scene.

"Yo Carrot! So how we gonna do this? You do all the work while I- Oh no, you invited HIM!" Soarin shook his head in anger and disbelief.

"Look, I know this is bad but I'm only doing this so we don't get F's on this okay?" Carrot Cake put himself between the two before they get into another hoof fight.

The three stood there staring at each other for a minute before Soarin' broke the silence.

"Okay fine, I'm in. But mister Fancy Pants over there better keep his mouth shut if he's gonna work with me!"

"I am willing to accompany you Carrot Cake, and _you_ better to keep your hooves to yourself, Soarin, or so help me Celestia…" Fancy Pants held a hoof up in anger.

"Good, now shake on it." Carrot Cake said as he dragged them face to face to each other.

The two of them stared each other in the eye, each with their own looks anger and frustration not wanting to do it but knowing they have to. Fancy Pants was the first to raise his hoof, waiting for Soarin to do the same. After a few more seconds, Soarin finally raised his hoof to meet Fancy Pants' and shook hooves, agreeing to work together and finish the project.

"Okay, now where do we start?" Fancy Pants asked, breaking away from the hoof shake.

"Yeah, what are we gonna do? The usual display board setup with facts and whatnot?" Soarin suggested.

"That's what I WAS thinking of..." Carrot Cake said as he sat down at the table. "But now I've found another one as I was walking home earlier. Now before I tell you this, I understand it sounds a little crazy but hear me out one this one okay?"

The two shrugged.

"What harm is it going to do anyway? It's okay, you can say it." Fancy Pants encouraged him.

"Okay, the idea was that we go ghost hunting in the Canterlot Royal Guard's Memorial Cemetery."

The two stared at Carrot Cake for a minute. Fancy Pants was contemplating on whether or not to support the idea while Soarin seemed all in considering he had heard about ghost hunting before.

"So, what do ya think?" Carrot asked the unicorn and pegasus.

"I LOVE IT!" Soarin shouted enthusiastically.

Carrot and Soarin both looked to Fancy Pants, who was still contemplating on the idea. After another minute he finally opened his mouth.

"I honestly think this is a great idea, I'm just unsure of how we're going accomplish this." The unicorn stated his worry, which in turn made Carrot Cake doubt his idea.

"Well…we could go in with flashlights and document our findings."Carrot Cake shrugged.

Fancy Pants thought about it for a second.

"Well, better than nothing I suppose. Let's do it then. When shall we start this 'ghost hunting'?" Fancy Pants asked.

"Tomorrow night around eight o'clock. I think that'll be the best time to start."

"Wait guys, I heard the cemetery closes at seven! How are we going to get in?" Soarin shared his worry.

"Not to worry, I know somepony in the guards that'll provide us access to the grounds after hours." The white unicorn reassured his partners.

"Okay good." Carrot Cake looked over to the sunset and saw that the sun had just lowered past the horizon. "That's all we can do for today considering its getting dark out. Tomorrow we'll meet at that one donut café that's on Saddle Street. The meeting will be in twelve hours, or Eight AM tomorrow."

The three agreed and trotted home to rest for the day ahead of them.

Carrot Cake's eyes fluttered as Celestia's majestic sun peaked through the window and shone onto his face. As what any teenager would do, he simply rolled over and groaned in annoyance at the light waking him from his slumber. He closed his eyes to rest for at least one more hour but his eyes shot open as he looked back at the clock as he saw the time. It was nearly 8:00, 7:48 to be exact, and he suddenly remembered what he had planned for that very day. In an instant he jumped up, only to become very lightheaded from forcing himself out of bed. He tried to stay on his hooves but found himself falling to the floor, barely conscious.

"Great, just great." Carrot Cake thought as he was forced to look at the rug on the froor.

Carrot Cake had thought of just lying down and waiting for his strength to come back, but then saw that it was getting close to 8:00. He had no other option; he HAD to call for help.

"Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" he shouted in desperation.

In an instant, his mother burst through the door screaming questions about his current condition. As soon as she got to her son she picked him up and set him on the bed to check whatever injuries he had.

"Are you alright Carrot Cakey!? Are you hurt? Are you bleeding? Ar-"

"I'm fine mom, I just called you to help me up." he cut her off with a hoof to the mouth.

She swatted the hoof out of her mouth and was going to talk until her son cut her off again.

"And to answer you're other question, it's exactly what happened. I fell down and couldn't get back up. Now sorry for leaving so soon, but I gotta go and meet some guys to help with my weekend project." He gently pushed his mother out of the way as he headed for the door.

His mother, Velvet Cake, was surprised to see him acting in such a way. Weeks ago he never seemed to be the sociable type but here he is going to meet a few friends of his. (Or at least ponies she thought were his friends.) It made her happy to see him so enthusiastic about meeting and socializing with other ponies. What she thought was joy was actually worry on his face as he quickly rushed downstairs and grabbed his saddlebag on the way out. As he trotted through the street, he saw his crush, Cupcake, sitting at a bench talking with one of her friends. He couldn't help but stare at the beautiful features of her face. He noticed that she smiled and waved a hoof in his direction. Just as he was about to wave back he slammed headfirst into a light pole, ultimately embarrassing himself in front of her. To add insult to injury, he found that she wasn't really waving at him. She was waving at some stallion right behind him. Wanting to leave before he embarrasses himself even further, he trotted off to get to his scheduled meeting.

"Why is it that I always arrive to these sorta things rather early? Too early in fact." Fancy Pants thought aloud.

"What or who are ya waitin' for?" asked an elderly stallion behind a counter as he cleaned out a mug with a rag.

"Just a couple other colts for a project we have to do." He tapped his hooves on the table.

"Well how long is it gonna take? Those tables are for payin' customers and if you're not gonna order anythin' then I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to kick ya out." The stallion pointed to the door.

Fancy Pants sighed and pulled out a small pouch with his magic. It rattled with the distinctive sound of Equestria's golden (It's actually Pyrite) currency.

"Fine then. I'll take a glass of hot chocolate, please." He tossed three bits to the stallion.

"Hot Chocolate, you got it!" he called out as he started to whip up a fresh cup of chocolate.

Faster than he could put his money pouch away, the pony had placed a steaming cup of hot chocolate complete with marshmallows, whipped cream, and sprinkled cinnamon to top it off. Fancy pants was in awe at how fast he had made it.

"Well go ahead, try it." The Stallion urged.

Fancy Pants picked up the cup and took a sip. His eyes grew wide with surprise and put the cup down.

"Well, how was it?" he asked.

Fancy Pants sat still in his chair for a few seconds before picking the cup up once again and started to chug down the hot drink.

"I take it that you like it." He smiled.

Fancy Pants put down the cup and sat silent to collect his thoughts, before speaking.

"That is the best thing I've ever experienced in my young life, and I have had sex." Fancy Pants then quickly turned his attention to the door to see a panting and exhausted Carrot Cake. "Bloody hell, what happened to YOU!?"

"Am I late?" he spat out.

Fancy Pants took a moment to look at the wall clock. "No, you're actually barely a minute early. Good job on ya."

Carrot Cake didn't bother to flop down onto a chair, he just collapsed onto the ground to rest. Not even a minute after he had done that, Soarin walked in without a care in the world. He took a couple seconds to look around and examine the restaurant before opening his mouth. It looked similar to how the layout of a bar would be. There were separate tables and chairs for multiple groups and there were barstools by the counter. Instead of the smell of alcohol in the air there was the mouth water scent of chocolate and fresh dough.

"Yep, this could just be our new hangout." He sighed with a smile.

"I agree!" Fancy Pants shouted enthusiastically before he gulped down the last of his chocolate drink.

"You guys act as if we're gonna be together forever. You DO remember we're only here until the project gets finished." Carrot Cake slowly pushed himself off of the floor and stood up.

"Carrot Cake, Soarin, you gotta try this chocolate! It's the dog's bollocks!" Fancy pants shouted as he grabbed his money pouch and slammed more bits onto the table, which the Stallion swooped up and went straight ahead in making three more cups.

Soarin and Carrot Cake sat next to Fancy Pants and waited for their drinks, though they didn't have to wait long. As soon as they sat down, their drinks had arrived and were steaming hot.

"Drink up." The Stallion smiled as he sat back.

Fancy Pants went ahead and started to slowly drink his chocolate, savoring the taste. Soarin and Carrot Cake on the other hand were reluctant to immediately drink it, but after shrugging 'why not?' they picked up their mugs and took a sip.

"Aces, isn't it?" He stared at them waiting for their reactions.

"Woah, that's some good cocoa right there!" Soarin exclaimed

"Wow that is really good!" Carrot Cake nodded his head as he set the mug down. "Okay, why are we all talking to each other like we're the best of friends? I mean less than twenty-four hours ago we tried to murder each other!"

"Maybe it's the chocolate." Soarin stated as he took another long gulp from his mug.

"Those were good times." Fancy Pants smiled and leaned back in this chair whilst taking another sip.

Carrot Cake rolled his eyes and took another sip from his chocolate.

"So, have you drawn up plans on how we are going to go forward with this project?" Fancy Pants lowered his mug.

"No, not yet because I was hoping we would continue with the project here."

"Oh, okay then. Where should we start?"

Carrot Cake stared at his two partners who were still sipping on their chocolate.

"I was kinda hoping you two would throw out some ideas, you know? I don't have to be the only one who has the brains to do it."

"Well, you ARE the leader of this group." Soarin took his last sip of chocolate before setting down the mug.

"Wait, since when have I been the lead of this group?" Carrot was surprised.

"Since you found a way to put Fancy and I in the same vicinity without us killing each other." Soarin pointed out.

Carrot Cake groaned in frustration. He had to admit, taking that big a risk HAD sort of made him the leader in their eyes. There were no other options for him at this point. He had to step up to the plate and play the team leader.

"Okay, I guess our option right now should be getting some flashlights, maybe some personal tape recorders, and I think that's it. Maybe even some hoodies so nobody knows who we are if things take a turn for the worst." Carrot Cake stared at the table.

"Well, I have a couple recorders at my home." Fancy Pants threw out.

"And I bet we all have a dark hoodie or cloak or something at each of our houses." Soarin' pointed out.

"I have a few flashlights at my home. I could grab them and we can begin our investigation as soon as it gets dark." Carrot Cake nodded his head. "I guess it's settled then. We'll go home and soon meet here in a couple hours. Until our investigation at seven o'clock, we'll screw around and do whatever. Got it?"

"Got it." Soarin and Fancy Pants said in unison.

"Let's go then."

The trio of partners took their last drink of chocolate and left the donut shop to continue with their plans.


End file.
